The Hamilton County school board was right Thursday to opt for hiring up to 10 of its own security officers for some campuses - despite reservations from the sheriff, who said he would rather see the district arm teachers or school staff members.
Consider the reason this is necessary: The county sheriff's department has been unable - despite the money being budgeted - to hire enough officers. That's officers of any kind. The department is 60 people short. And it has especially struggled with school resource officer staffing.
It's not from lack of Sheriff Jim Hammond's trying. Nor is his department alone. Despite what we're sure has been yeomens' efforts to vet and train and oversee good officers, local law enforcement leaders are clearly having a hard time balancing recruiting with resources and availability.
In addition to vacancies, just consider the number of officers (well over a half dozen) to be fired or disciplined in the past year for egregious reasons - from violation of human rights to kidnapping to rape.
Though bad-apple officers were never specifically discussed publicly in Thursday night's Board of Education meeting - nor should they have been - it is a given that putting armed security officers in schools with our children carries a much higher threshold than vetting them to patrol our streets.
That means this decision for our school board members has been particularly hard. That was clear Thursday as the board discussed the issue and their options for filling nine still-vacant SRO positions.
(MORE: Despite sheriff's reservations, Hamilton County school board votes to hire security officers)
All agreed - the sheriff included - that school resource officers handpicked with high aspiration from our local law enforcement agencies are the gold standard. But Hammond told the board members his particular preference as a stop-gap measure would be for the board to consider training and arming teachers who volunteered instead.
"The right thing is the SRO," Hammond said. "I have money to hire SROs. I just don't have SROs. We are in a difficult time in law enforcement. The economy is good - it's just that other jobs pay better."
He added: "I'm not here to say teachers need one more thing to do. I'm here to say that some teachers would be willing to step up."
But school board members Jenny Hill, of District 6, and Tiffanie Robinson, of District 4, were quick to dismiss armed teachers - currently against Tennessee law anyway - as the solution.
"I haven't met a single parent that supports that, and as a parent myself, I would never support my child's teacher carrying a gun into the classroom," Robinson said.
Hill added that nine out of 10 people she talks to "are horrified by the idea of arming teachers. I have yet to be convinced that more guns in a school make a school a safer place."
That said, both Robinson and Hill voted to support the school district's plan to assign its own officers for schools that don't have assigned SROs. The measure passed 7-1, with only District 5 board member Karitsa Mosley Jones dissenting, stressing several times that she was "uneasy" about the idea.
Board chairman Joe Wingate, of District 7, characterized the vote as a function of "something was better than nothing."
Now only about 1 in 3 schools in Hamilton County has a school resource officer, and about nine of the SRO positions budgeted by the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office and the district remain vacant. The district plans to hire 10 security officers, to be trained by new Student Security Coordinator James Corbin in cooperation with each school's individual school safety team. Corbin is a former officer with the Orlando Police Department and former executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers. Hammond spoke highly of him to the board.
The security officers will be responsible for patrolling and monitoring school campuses and school buildings, maintaining a visible presence and ensuring external security, but they will not be involved in discipline or counseling students and would not serve the same functions as a school resource officer. Applicants will be required to be Tennessee Peace Officer Standards & Training certified and have firearms training.
The district would use funds from the $500,000 it has allocated toward school resource officers to pay these new employees. The new hires' salaries would range from about $35,000-$40,000 annually, and their vetting, hiring and training would have more school district oversight than contracted security officers.
That direct school district responsibility seemed to be the selling point for board members. That and the fact most board members indicated they believe it unfair - if not unsafe - to ask teachers to take on still another job and responsibility.
We all want, above all, to ensure the safety of our children in school. But as one board member said, we don't ask police officers and sheriff's deputies to teach chemistry. We shouldn't ask teachers to be police.